(CN) It's a dog's life for man's best friend

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It's a dog's life for man's best friend

By Liu Shinan

China Daily

2007-07-25

 

Two dog-related stories appeared online on Monday, showing the two extremes of

people's love and hate for the animal.

 

A university professor in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, spent 100,000 yuan

($13,000) to hold a funeral for his dead pet dog on Sunday. A week earlier, six

men bludgeoned a dog to death before its owner's very eyes in a street in

Lanzhou, Gansu Province.

 

Though his unconventional behavior may cause repulsion given the fact that a

fair large part of the Chinese population is still poverty stricken and 100,000

yuan would be enough to put dozens of rural children through school, the

professor can't be blamed for he did nothing to harm anyone.

 

The cold-blooded killing of a dog by six men wielding heavy cudgels, however, is

something else.

 

In their defense, the men said they did not slay the canine without good reason.

One of them said the dog, a large collie, had scared his friend's child and its

owner had bullied the child's parents during the subsequent quarrel. He said he

and the five other friends of the child's parent had to kill the dog because

they couldn't count on the local authorities to stop it being a threat to

children, even though they had reported it to the police.

 

I definitely disagree with the brutal slaughter of the dog but I would be

speechless if the man asked me this question: " What else do you think we can do

for justice to be done? "

 

I certainly would not say something like, " leave the matter to the government

for a proper treatment " , as is often suggested by media commentators. I know

" proper treatment " in most cases would mean simply letting the matter drop after

a suitably protracted delay. The authorities have much weightier things to

attend to than trivial brawls between neighbors.

 

However, disputes between dog lovers and their neighbors who do not raise pets

are not trivial.

 

Last week, a pet wolfhound bit off the left half of a 4-year-old girl's face in

Anshan, a city in Liaoning Province.

 

On August 31 last year, a nine-year-old boy was eaten alive by two wolfhounds

raised by a neighbor in Lishi county, Shanxi Province.

 

Injuries caused by large dogs are not rare: Such reports never cease.

 

Complaints about dogs have been on the increase, covering everything from their

nighttime barking, fouling of pavements, the threat to children and spread of

disease.

 

Most places have laws and rules on the raising of dogs that are generally

exhaustive enough to cover all eventualities. But the execution of them is not

always as it should be. Violation of the laws and rules is visible everywhere

but there seems to be little punishment.

 

For example, I have never seen anyone who failed to clean up after their pet

being punished. Of course, I might have missed the occasions when someone did,

but the droppings widely seen in public greenbelts suggest most people are

getting away with it.

 

Another example of weak governance in this regard: Beijing has about 1 million

pet dogs but only 500,000 are officially registered with the police.

 

Pet lovers have the rights to raise dogs. But when their pets' actions impinge

on the interests of other people, they must be held accountable and compensate

those who are hurt in any way.

 

Most people do not raise dogs. In Beijing, for example, just one in five

households has a pet dog.

 

To the authorities: Please seriously address the problem of pet-related

neighborhood conflicts. Don't leave people's pets to the mercy of angry victims

of dangerous dogs.

 

(China Daily 07/25/2007 page10)

 

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2007-07/25/content_5442784.htm#